So far, the sri Lankan terrorist group “National Thowheeth Jama’ath was a” worldwide law unknown. This has now changed. May the NTJ supporters of well-known international terrorist organizations had.
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Tense situation in Sri Lanka
It’s supposed to be a terrorist organization in Sri Lanka itself, which is for the bombings of Easter Sunday: The government of the country, the radical Islamic group by the name of “National Thowheeth Jama’ath” (NTJ) as the mastermind of the attacks, in which nearly 300 people were killed. Now under the search, whether the NTJ “had international support,” said the speaker of the sri Lankan Cabinet, Rajitha Senaratne,. “We do not see, as only a small organization in this country can do it all. We examine now where the suicide bombers came from and how the bombs have produced.”
Already on Sunday it became known that Sri Lanka had intelligence information on a possible attack of a little-known local Islamic group, the attacks on churches plane.
Who is the “National Thowheeth Jama’ath”?
“We don’t know a lot about NTJ, but the grouping is similar to many others in South Asia, active terrorist groups, such as “Ansarullah Bangla Team” (ABT) in Bangladesh. How ABT also NTJ Al seems-to-be-Qaeda inspired,” says Siegfried O. Wolf, South Asia expert at the Brussels-based Think-Tank “South Asia Democratic Forum” in an interview with Deutsche Welle.
Siegfried O. Wolf from the “South Asia Democratic Forum”
“Your main goal is to spread jihadist ideology and generate fear and hatred. They are working to maintain ethnic and religious conflicts in the life,” adds Wolf.
The majority of the population of Sri Lanka is Buddhist faith, ten percent are Muslims, only six percent of the inhabitants are Catholics. The relations between the majority Buddhist population of Sri Lanka and the Muslim minority have been strained in recent years. In March 2018, the sri Lankan government declared a nationwide state of emergency to combat the violence between Muslims and the Buddhist majority Sinhalese.
According to observers, there is in Sri Lanka so far, although no significant Islamist groups. But the religious extremism in South Asia is growing – both Muslim, as well as on the Buddhist side.
Links to global terror networks?
Against this Background, the question of why the NTJ decided as the alleged mastermind of the terrorist attacks, churches and foreigners to attack, rather than try to Buddhists to harm. South Asia expert Wolf: “International terrorist groups, abusing, increasingly, local conflicts and the global Jihad in different parts of the world extend.”
At least eight detonations occurred in the centre and suburbs of the capital Colombo and two other locations
The Uighurs conflict in the Western province of Xinjiang in China and the Rohingya conflict in Myanmar are two examples of this. In both cases, global terrorist organizations tried to exploit, such as the “Islamic state” and Al-Qaeda, local problems, in order to find more supporters. Sri Lankan militant groups have also long-standing Links to international terrorist organizations. “The need to raise money, has even prompted separatist groups like the Tamil Tigers, to seek help from the outside,” explains Wolf.
With enormous effort on the part of the government of Sri Lanka have developed in the last ten years one of the most popular tourist destinations. “An attack in a tourist region is known for its international attention,” says Wolf, and churches could be used as “soft targets”.
Strong Tensions
High Muslims condemned the terrorist attacks in churches and Hotels as the “dastardly deeds” that earned a “maximum punishment”. “On behalf of the sri Lankan Muslim community, we talk to the people of the Christian faith, our condolences and extend our hands of friendship, in solidarity,” said the Council of Muslim theologians.
Nevertheless, the attacks Wake now fears of a resurgence of ethnic and religious violence in Sri Lanka. The police reported on Sunday night of attacks with Molotov on a mosque in the North-West and Muslim-owned businesses in the West.
This photo from 2008 shows how the sri Lankan army and LTTE firing positions
The bomb attacks are a major setback for the sri Lankan authorities, who have managed the violence in the country in the last ten years to curb. In the case of decades-long conflict with the Tamil separatists of the “Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam” (LTTE) in the North of the country, thousands of people had been killed. Ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa had defeated the LTTE in 2009, finally, with a military operation.
However, the Absence of violence does not mean that Sri Lanka had overcome its serious social and political divisions, says South Asia expert Wolf. “The ethnic-religious conflict between the Buddhist Sinhalese majority and the Hindu-Tamil minority, ended in 2009, although officially, the conflict in the country persists, however, as it has been for this complex Problem, yet no political solution.”
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